As a heat wave engulfs the Bay Area, public health departments are reminding the public that Covid-19 is still around and residents need to be cautious.
Health officials Friday reminded the public no to gather and to continue to wearing face coverings despite sweltering temperatures that have reached more than 100 degrees in some inland areas. Though it can be uncomfortable to wear a mask in severe heat and while people may have the urge to gather, especially near water, officials stress that residents need to hold the line to prevent further spread.
Bay Area public health departments are also still playing catch up Covid-19 databases after issues with the state’s electronic reporting system.
Read on for the latest Covid-19 figures from each of the nine Bay Area counties.
Source: John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center COVID-19 global tracking tool as of Saturday at 6:27 p.m.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised guidance Friday that reflects updated evidence of the impact of Covid-19 on children.
Health officials said the number of cases among children aged 0 to 17 steadily increased between March and July. Children make up 22 percent of the U.S. population — as of August 3, the CDC reports that children make up 7.3 percent cases of the nations’s total case count.
The news comes as many students are beginning to return to school. Some states are allowing students to return to classrooms while others are opting for distance learning models.
CDC officials said it’s not clear yet if children are as susceptible to Covid-19 illness or can transmit the virus at the rate adults do.
Officials suggest that children were not as affected by the virus due to mitigation measures in place during the spring when many school districts shut down in-person instruction.
The CDC wrote:
Open SFBay USA coronavirus tracker.“This may explain the low incidence in children compared with adults. Comparing trends in pediatric infections before and after the return to in-person school and other activities may provide additional understanding about infections in children.”
Source: John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center COVID-19 global tracking tool as of Saturday at 6:27 p.m.
Gov. Gavin Newsom Friday said during the Covid-19 press briefing that the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange data issue caused a backlog of nearly 300,000 Covid-19 test results and delayed accurate county reporting for two weeks.
Newsom said the hospitalization rates in the state saw a 20 percent decrease over the last 14 days. In that same period of time, the test positivity rate was calculated at 6.2 percent, down more than a full percentage point from the peak on July 31.
Though some indicators indicate a possible improvement, the California Department of Public Health is now reporting that the state surpassed 11,000 deaths as of Friday.
Source: Alameda County Public Health Department as of Saturday.
In an August 13 update from the Alameda County Public Health Department, officials said new cases from the state backlog will now be trickling into the county’s databases.
Case, test and positivity rate trends may be incomplete until all backlogged data is entered. County officials did not say when the data entry would be finished. However, hospitalization rates were not affected by the state’s system as the data is reported through another system.
As of August 13, the county reported 165 Covid-19 patients countywide, with 61 patients in intensive care units. Thirty-five percent of the inpatient beds remained available on the same day.
Source: Contra Costa Health Services as of Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.
Contra Costa County officials have listed multiple locations in the county where residents can cool off this weekend and through next week. The National Weather Service expects Concord to reach 107 degrees Monday.
Residents can find locations in Antioch, Concord, Pleasant Hill and in Richmond.
All locations will practice social distancing guidelines and everyone who enters must wear a face covering.
Click here for a list of locations and hours of operations.
Source: Marin Health and Human Services as of Friday.
*Marin County began reporting San Quentin State Prison cases separately, but for the purposes of tracking actual infections and potential impact on hospitalization rates, we’ve included inmate cases with the county’s cumulative total. However, staff member infections are being included in the individual’s county of residence reporting.
County health officials said Friday that they are experiencing an outbreak in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood, a predominantly Latino community.
Public health officials are working with San Rafael, Kaiser Permanente, Marin Health, Canal Alliance and Marin Community clinics to develop a case surge plan.
While Latino residents make up just 16 percent of Marin County’s population, they constitute two-thirds of the cumulative case total and 51 percent of hospitalizations.
As of Friday, the county reported a total of 3,514 positive test results, not including data from San Quentin State Prison.
State Quentin State Prison
The number of inmates with active Covid-19 infections continue to fall with just 77 inmates now being reported with the virus as of Saturday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported.
San Quentin had been a incubator for the virus, infecting a total of 2,236 inmates and killing 25. There have been 13 new cases in the last 14 days.
Among the prison staff, 272 have been infected and one has died as a results. One hundred employees have recovered and returned to work.
Source: Department of Health and Human Services as of Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Public health officials said Friday that the county is seeing over 150 new cases of Covid-19 every week. An additional 160 cases were added in the week of August 7.
Officials said the most common type of exposures have been household contacts (36 percent), community spread with unknown exposure (24 percent) and from the work place (12 percent). Approximately 19 percent of infected indivduals could not be reached or refused to answer.
Source: San Francisco Department of Public Health with data reported through Wednesday. Data is lagged up to three days.
The number of Covid-19 patients in San Francisco hospitals is again slowly increasing. As of Thursday, The City’s Department of Public reported a total of 100 patients hospitalized and of those, 32 were in ICU beds.
There were hopeful signs earlier in the month that The City was on the right track to meet its hospitalization rate goal. The increase since puts the key health indicator back into a moderate alert category.
Source: San Mateo County Health Department with data reported through Friday.
To prepare students for online learning, county officials earlier this week announced a partnership with local school districts to bring high-speed internet to thousands of students who live in rural areas.
On August 4, the county’s Board of Supervisors approved approximately $2.9 million for use toward the project. The county partnered with Ravenswood City, La Honda-Pescadero Unified, Redwood City and Sequoia Union High school districts to deploy internet to students who need access for distance learning.
County officials said they will subsidize the cost of Comcast’s Internet Essential package for a total of 14 months for students in qualified school districts.
Additionally, students will have free access to T-Mobile’s Empowered Education program, which will provide students with portable mobile wireless hot spots through the end of the school year.
Source: Santa Clara County Public Health as of Saturday.
Officials said they are in the process of installing new touchless pedestrian crossing signals.
The first batch of devices have already been installed at the intersection of South Bascom Avenue and Renova Drive, in front of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Adding that the county is one of the first in the nation to use the contactless signal devices, County Supervisor Mike Wasserman said in a statement said:
“We identified contact free pedestrian activation devices as one more way we can help our residents reduce their exposure to the novel coronavirus.”
Pedestrians will just need to wave their hand in front of the device in order to activate the pedestrian crossing signal.
The county will install approximately 200 of the devices at 25 intersections. Click here to find street locations where the devices will be installed.
Source: Solano Public Health as of Friday at 6:00 p.m.
Source: County of Sonoma with data as of Friday.
The county added 94 new cases since Thursday but daily case rates continue to be updated as officials receive backlogged data from the state’s CalREDIE electronic reporting system.
Santa Rosa continues to make up the majority of the county’s cases with a total of 1,789 residents testing positive to date. The city makes up 46 percent of all cases in Sonoma County.
The case rate per 100,000 residents in Santa Rosa is at 822.6, according to the health department.
Source: John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center COVID-19 global tracking tool as of Saturday at 6:27 p.m.
Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.
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